Victor Shenderovich

Victor Anatolievich Shenderovich (Russian: Ви́ктор Анато́льевич Шендеро́вич) (born August 15, 1958 in Moscow, Russia) is a popular Russian satirist, writer, scriptwriter and radio host. In 1980, Shenderovich graduated from the Moscow State Art and Cultural University,[1] specialising in "direction of volunteer theatrical groups". He is best known as a scriptwriter of popular political puppet show Kukly (Puppets) which was aired on NTV 1994 to 2002. He hosted satirical author program "Total" on NTV 1997 to 2001 and TV-6 in 2002. Later, Shenderovich ran a weekly program "Processed Cheese" on the Echo of Moscow radio station. The texts of this program's editions were later collected in his book "Better two heads than one. Duumvirate times chronicle", implying Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Nowadays Shenderovich is a columnist of The New Times, a liberal Russian weekly.

He is known as an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin's rule and the government's stance on war in Chechnya. Shenderovich is among the 10 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go" published in March 2010. In April 2010, Shenderovich was involved in a sex scandal with a woman claimed to have acted as a Kremlin "honey pot" to discredit opposition figures.[2]

On 26 December 2010, Shenderovich played a major role in organising a "Moscow for Everyone" (Russian: Москва для всех) rally in the capital of Russia, in response to race riots having occurred earlier in the month.[3]

In 2005, Shenderovich ran for a seat in a December 4 by-election to the State Duma but came in second to the popular movie-maker Stanislav Govorukhin. The winner took 38% of votes and Shenderovich took 17%. Before the election, Shenderovich protested the "widely illegal and immoral practices" of Govorukhin in court, but his appeal was rejected by the judge as unfounded.

In 2006, he published the book Nedodumets in which he summarised his experience as a Duma candidate.